CAT Scale weights are confusing me.

BarneyS wrote:
jadatis wrote:

Maximum allowed tonge-weight in America is as far a I know 15% so this 15.5% would not give problems when weighed by police , I think.
Snip...

America has no "maximum allowed" tongue weight.- at least non that I have ever heard of. In fact, there are NO recreational vehicle regulations or laws pertaining to tongue weight at all or even axle weights as far as I know.

Barney is dead on.

It is common for a trailer like a TT, (some times referred to as "conventional towing") that this trailer type has a "recommended" loaded tongue weight of between 10 to 15% for good towing dynamics in relation to trailer sway. The 15% higher end is that, a recommendation as when this goes higher, many (not all) tow vehicles can have issues holding up higher then 15% tongue weight. And pending the vehicle, some cannot handle the full 15% while other vehicles can handle 20 % plus load tongue weight. My prior TT had a floor plan where the "dry" trailer tongue weight started at 15.5% dry tongue weight and went up into the 20% + after I started loading it. For sure it towed stable but also made me trade my 1500 truck in on a K2500 Suburban.

Think of a gooseneck horse trailer, the wheels are way in the back and the tow ball is all the way in the front. These have large TW's by design and the truck needs to have the payload to carry it.

Hope this helps

John